Audio, Audio, Audio.

Oh boy has this sphere seen plenty of action of late. In the last year, look at what has transpired.

• Spotify has spent millions as it’s looked to dominate the music and podcast game. In early 2020 they bought Bill Simmons media company, The Ringer, for $200 million. Then they signed Joe Rogan for $100 million. This doesn’t even count what they did before in buying Gimlet and Anchor. Spotify’s sole aim to is to be the Netflix of audio. They’re on their way.
• Clubhouse, the live audio app that caught the internet on fire a few…

It’s time we addressed what real value is in our economy.

Last night I found myself scrolling through YouTube aimlessly. I do this sometimes when my brain has decided to turn off. It’s in this moment where I’m too tired to read or even fall asleep as weird as that might sound. I’m alive but not really there. To pass the time as I wait for my eyes to drift away, my hand continues to scroll. I eventually give up on watching random Vox and CNBC videos and return to my old stand by, Mad Men.

A late night pleaser…

If you were to ask me today if I felt that most people were inherently good, I’d quickly reply, “yes, I believe they are.” I say this knowing full well the breadth and depth of evil humans can generate. This world presents plenty of it everyday. Nevertheless, despite our failings, I still live my life hoping I’ll see the best in people. I always will and that will never change.

It’s in us to aspire as individuals. To want to achieve and be greater than we are right now. But, despite our best intentions to be good to one another…

If QR codes are here to stay, is this an opportunity they should grab now?

Over the past month or so I’ve started to examine potential new areas of growth for the restaurant industry. With the pandemic still a menace to all things hospitality, my aim with these short column ideas is to look outside the box. In essence, consider concepts that restaurateurs may not have thought of. You can read my first two articles here and here.

For today’s idea I want to discuss price fluctuations, specifically why restaurants should start implementing the practice. Full disclaimer: this thought is…

There’s this truthful line Johnny Depp recites from the movie Blow which I’m always reminded of whenever I think about my life and those around me. I always wonder how closely it fits with each person’s reality.

“Most people’s lives pass them by as they are making grand plans for them.”

From Vox:

“Eating, paying for health insurance, all the bills that normal people have — those don’t go away just because you don’t make a lot of money, those things all exist,” he says.

“I want to know how much the people make who say $15 is too much…

The company has a chance to be better. It should take it.

This past Friday Amazon won a monumental battle in Bessemer, Alabama as employees for its warehouse voted down unionization. This isn’t shocking. Amazon did everything they could to dissuade this from happening.

From Recode:

Amazon pushed hard to convince workers to vote against unionization. The company set up an anti-union website that harped on the fact that union dues would cost full-time workers close to $500 a year. What the company didn’t say on the website is that, in Alabama, unions can’t require workers to pay union dues…

Cheap credit. Hungry investors. Rethinking the restaurant model could give the industry a much needed jolt and possibly even save it. Using a SPAC could be just the answer.

It hasn’t been an easy year for the restaurant and bar industry to say the least. This pandemic has exposed its many flaws in brutal fashion. Lockdowns, limited seating, added PPE precautions and dependance on third part delivery apps are just some of the issues restaurateurs have had to deal with on top of the myriad they already face daily. …

What’s the angle? Is there a bigger play here?

In a week which saw Spotify purchase Clubhouse competitor Locker Room to help them compete in the emerging live audio sphere, Squarespace, the prominent website builder for startups, chose to one up this move with their own acquisition of the restaurant reservation platform Tock.

From Bloomberg:

Website-hosting service Squarespace Inc., a $10 billion company that has confidentially filed for an initial public offering, is buying restaurant-services provider Tock for more than $400 million.

Squarespace paid a mix of cash and stock for the Chicago-based company, which provides technology for online reservations…